{"id":7147,"date":"2021-09-21T06:42:03","date_gmt":"2021-09-21T13:42:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=7147"},"modified":"2021-09-21T06:42:04","modified_gmt":"2021-09-21T13:42:04","slug":"real-presence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=7147","title":{"rendered":"
Real Presence<\/div>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Click here for a pdf version.<\/a><\/p>\n

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John 6:51-58<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Sermon for the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what is real? And what is really real? That\u2019s what we\u2019re about. What is really, really, really, really, really real? What is really real is that Jesus Christ truly is who we say he is. That is not just a nice idea. Or a handy idea. What is it that we say?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We confess that the eternal God, Lord, Lord of lords, Creator, Father of all, became this human being, born about 4 B.C., who had a true mother, and who walked on earth and died. Truly human. Not walking two inches off the earth. Truly human; of course, truly God as well. And as it says at the Council of Chalcedon (451), \u201cunmixed and undivided,\u201d and don\u2019t try to sort that out. That is the basis of what we confess, and when we confess that, we say: That\u2019s the reality, that is the reality behind everything and determines what everything is about. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having said that, we come to John 6:53: \u201cTruly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.\u201d That\u2019s repeated three more times in similar words. It\u2019s one of those very disputed passages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An example of how it\u2019s disputed is that at the time of the Reformation there was a group called Sacramentarians, who said when we receive the bread, we tear his flesh with our teeth, like cannibals. This view, called the Capernaitic heresy, is condemned in our Book of Concord<\/em> (Tappert 483:15; Kolb\/Wengert 506:15).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not what the Gospel of John means. This text today repeats the end of the text from last week, John 6:51, which said: \u201cI am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.\u201d That puts it in a broader context. What is this about?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do we mean when we say, Jesus Christ is really human and really God determines what we say about the Lord\u2019s Supper. What do we mean when we say \u201creal presence\u201d? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are three ways in which this has been approached. First, in 1968 in the US Lutheran-Catholic Dialogue, a group of top experts, ten Roman Catholics and ten Lutherans, agreed on a ten-page statement about the Lord\u2019s Supper. Remarkable! Even about the word, \u201ctransubstantiation,\u201d which in Catholic thinking says: This wine and bread truly become Jesus\u2019 body and blood, they just appear to be bread and wine. Yet the whole Dialogue was able to say together: \u201cWe are persuaded that no single vocabulary or conceptual framework can be adequate, exclusive or final in the theological enterprise.\u201d (It is important to realize that the Dialogue was theologizing, not legislating.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet, from 1965 on, this Dialogue, which met twice a year for four days, including always a Sunday, never celebrated communion together. They knew their onions. Considering this wide agreement, why didn\u2019t they have communion together?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roman Catholics are expressly forbidden to take communion elsewhere. Exceptions are only to be in writing by the bishop. A priest can\u2019t make exceptions. Why? Because if Catholics could go to communion elsewhere, they would imply that non-Roman Catholic communion is something. From the point of view of Roman Catholic theology, when we celebrate communion, nothing sacramental happens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other way around, non-Roman Catholics are requested, in fact, more than requested, told that they are not to take part in Roman Catholic communion. Exceptions again, only in writing, and only by the bishop. Can\u2019t be done by the priest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why would that be? For two reasons. Again, it would be implying that there is some kind of equality between Catholics and others. But what is really at stake is that when you go to a Roman Catholic communion service and take part without being Roman Catholic, you are accepting the authority of the Pope. That\u2019s because the Pope is the one who ordains the bishops. And the bishops are the ones who ordain the priests, and only the priests in the Catholic Church can make it happen. That\u2019s the other side of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although we can say there is wide agreement, what is then meant by \u201creal\u201d is, when it comes down to it, on the one hand, for Roman Catholics, it is the authority of the Pope, and on the other hand, for Lutherans, it is the power of the Word, the Word of proclamation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second example has to do with what communion is. In recent years some Lutherans have said that communion is hospitality. It\u2019s being open and welcoming. Some have even said expressly that you can have communion without being baptized. It\u2019s all just a matter of being open and welcoming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That turns the whole matter of communion into saying it is an experience, and it\u2019s how you feel about it, how you think about it, and how you understand it. It depends on your thinking. This is the other extreme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is at stake here is: Did he truly become one of us at the same time remaining God entirely? This is basic to what we say in the Nicene Creed. He is \u201cof one substance with the Father.\u201d How is that understood in the Gospel of John? He is at the right hand of the Father, but he continues to be the one who became human. He continues to be truly human and truly God. He didn\u2019t give that up. And he continues among us simultaneously, because the Holy Spirit makes it happen. The Gospel of John is the most specific about this in the New Testament. It\u2019s very easy to remember: John 14:26, 15:26, and 16:13-15 say it expressly. The Holy Spirit has one job, which is to re-present Jesus and to make him present. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recall two examples. First, the end of the Gospel of John, chapter 21, when the disciples say: \u201cLet\u2019s go fishing.\u201d They have this huge catch of fish and then see someone on the shore, who has already built a big fire. They recognize him when he says: \u201cLet\u2019s eat together.\u201d That is parallel to what you have in Luke 24. Remember the two on the way to Emmaus. A stranger walks with them and talks to them. They can\u2019t quite figure out all this, and then when he breaks the bread, they said: \u201cWe knew it was the Lord.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s in his Word and his coming to us in Baptism and the Lord\u2019s Supper. Just as he truly comes to be among us, as truly one of us. He continues. He truly comes, and he truly does what he does. This can be seen in 1 Cor 10:16, when Paul writes about food sacrificed to idols, he says: \u201cDon\u2019t do that. Don\u2019t eat that.\u201d  And then adds: \u201cWhat is it that we do?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body for we all partake of the one loaf.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that means that we are in Christ and that includes receiving life from him now and forever. He comes to us although he is outside of us, in spite of us, he is truly in us, and he, through his Word, makes us his own, now and forever. Amen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A sermon for the Eightteenth Sunday after Pentecost. Select here<\/a> to read more or here <\/a>for a pdf document.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7147"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7154,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7147\/revisions\/7154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}